Mental Health - Assignment Sample

Running head: Mental Health
ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Nursing theory Framework....................................................................................................................2
Nursing..............................................................................................................................................2
Health................................................................................................................................................2
Person................................................................................................................................................3
Acute mental health..............................................................................................................................3
Theoretical perspective of mental health..........................................................................................3
Barriers to implement this theoretical perspective within acute mental health...............................5
Enablers to implement this theoretical perspective within acute mental health..............................6
My perceptions of nursing theoretical perspectives.............................................................................6
Learning outcomes............................................................................................................................7
Ways in which Nursing theoretical perspectives inform my practice................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Nursing care is framed and considered as important part in today’s time as there are
unique theories that are used by each nurse to make patient healthy. In this report we have
focused on the nursing theory defined by Virginia Henderson, she defined various
components that need to be undertaken. Apart from that I have reflected my personal thinking
about this experience.
Nursing theory Framework
Nursing theory framework includes basis of how nurses need to practise their
knowledge to overcome the suffering of patients. Nursing theory is used to provide support to
patients by enabling the ways to overcome from their disease.
Nursing
It is a profession performed by nurses to take care of sick and infirm. It is a profession
within the health care sector and focuses on the way to maintain the quality of life of an
individual. Nursing helps in taking care of individual journey towards healthy life. Nursing
undertakes various responsibilities that involve making acute decisions for providing
treatment. The key role of nurses is to monitor the patients on their behaviour patterns and
make sure that based on their knowledge they take proper steps for patient’s wellbeing. If
consider the case of acute mental health nurses firstly go through assessment process in
which they understand the behaviour of patient on the basis of social, economic and
physiological basis (Bmc, 2016). After the assessment, diagnosis is done by considering the
symptoms of patients and planning the goals so that recovery can be done in an efficient way.
Once the goals have been decided they are implemented so that care of patient could be
progressed and achieve a good outcome.
Health
Health is composed of physical, mental and social wellbeing of an individual. Health
of a person is stated as a complete wellbeing of an individual who is free from any disease.
Health assures that an individual is in its perfect state of mind and physical outcomes. Health
is considered healthy if a person is free from disease and also if in cases an individual is
suffering from disease they should have the ability to recover from the illness. There are
several factors that affect good health of an individual like genetics, relationship and the

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surrounding in which an individual is living (Ukessay, 2017). According to world health
organisation health is positive concept that helps in development of person capabilities of a
person. In this article the research is over acute mental health that is affected by emotional
and social surrounding of wellbeing. Mental health of person is generally dependent on some
past experience of individuals. A person can maintain good health by living in a surrounding
that is full of positive people and have good social connections. Mental health is somewhere
caused due to depression, anxiety and loneliness. Individuals who have lower socio-economic
connections have stress level which leads to the suffering of acute mental health.
Person
According to the nursing framework study, a person is a wellbeing who has
capabilities to perform task and have ability to develop their own identity. A person can be an
individual or an association that have legal rights and have a value associated with their
actions. A person have a right to take decisions regarding anything going in their life, no one
can force them and miss-treat their dignity. In case of their medical life no one can perform
any treatment against their decision and they are included in the decision regarding their
healthcare. If a person is considered in health terms they have the ability to get treatment
whenever they are ill and have the right to be part decisions regarding their health.
Acute mental health
The area of practise for this assignment is acute mental health of a person. Acute
mental health needs to be treated immediately as it gets worse with time. In this part we will
focus on what Henderson thinks about acute mental health and her perceptive regarding this
illness (Ramírez, 2017). The barriers and positive side have also been discussed.
Theoretical perspective of mental health
According to Virginia Henderson a nursing theory was developed to focus on unique practice
experiences. According to her she suggested that nursing theory should focus on improving
the independency level of a person in their recovery phase (Hyde, 2016). She suggested if a
person has the ability to recovery from the shortcomings the progress will be fast. According
to her theory she described that nurses should work in a manner so that an individual gets the
potential to solve the shortcoming independently (Cheng, McDermott & Lopez, 2015).
Nurses should work in a way to help the individuals to work by themselves and nurses should
just act like support rather than an individual to fulfil the needs. The unique function of the

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nurse in case of mental health is to assist the individual who is sick so that they achieve
growth in terms of performance and recovery (Yanos, Lucksted, Drapalski, Roe & Lysaker,
2015). In her opinion she stated that it is the strength of an individual that will help him to
fight against the illness and get rapid growth.
In her theoretical perception she included four components. First includes the individual itself
as mental illness is directly related to their activities. To achieve good health they need to
undertake various steps. Second component is environment as mental health is affected by the
surrounding in which an individual is living. Impact of discrimination, social inequalities and
community can lead to depression which in turn leads to mental illness. Nurses monitor in
this cases to assure that patient eat normally, breathe normally as well as sleep properly.
Third component described by Henderson in her theory is health that is identified by the
functions that will be performed by an individual, nurse’s work on cases to achieve good
health by removing the stress (Current nursing, 2015). They focus on balancing the capability
with the background. Lastly, in her process she depicted that nursing plays an important role
as they serve the patient by completing the efforts needed to overcome from the disease.
Nurses just act a supporter needed to care for patients in a creative way so that they get
strength to overcome from barriers.
According to Henderson’s theory nursing care for mental health can be followed by few
stages, first includes some basic components that should be taken care like making sure that
patient communicate with others for expressing their feelings and emotions and nurses learn
patients need according to their satisfaction so that they start living a normal and healthy life
by undertaking proper health care. Then according to her theory, Henderson’s suggested that
nurses compare the data with their actual knowledge to identify a plan. While deciding the
plan nurses should diagnosis in a way that patients don’t need any assistance and can take
care of them by their own strength. Plan is then implemented to assist the patient suffering
from acute mental health. Nursing process is based on physiological and cultural balance to
carry the treatment as planned (George, 2018). As nursing evaluation affects the preparation
and ability o recover faster as they provide quality of care. Successful outcomes of nursing
care are based on the rapidity with patient performs independently the activities of daily
living. The main perception behind her theory is that nurses should care in a way that patients
become independent to overcome from their illness (Coady & Lehmann, 2016). Being
dependent on others for their treatment makes them weaker. So, that even in her plans she
focused on ideas to make patient independent.

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Barriers to implement this theoretical perspective within acute mental
health
The unique function of nurses is to assist the patients when they are sick by performing
activities to improve their performance and achieve faster recovery. Nurses help the patient to
gain success rapidly by increasing their strength and knowledge (Edward & Giandinoto,
2015). Practising these concepts are not easy, there are various barriers associated with this
theory.
Few barriers faced to implement this theory by nurses are:
 People suffering from acute mental health tend to suffer from physical illness that
makes difficult for nurses to leave them independently, as they are not in good state of
mind which could lead to future problems.
 In case of acute mental health their morality rate is very less which is difficult to
handle by nurses.
 Nurses need to have an experience of mental illness as they often face difficulty while
treating them as it is very uncertain and need to be taken into consideration on timely
basis.
 Nurses face the challenge in managing them as patients undergo factors such as
stigma and discrimination, high aggression and lack of time and resources to fulfil the
requirements of patients.
Considering the theoretical perceptive of Henderson it has various barriers to implement
their theories in acute mental illness treatment. There are 14 components in her theory
that need to adopt which is very difficult in case of this illness (Ravesteijn, Kippersluis &
Doorslaer, 2018). It includes making sure that they have proper eating management as it
would help in healing the overall illness. Making the patient move from one place to
another helps in making the patient independent but it case of acute mental health patient
become aggressive and it is difficult to maintain all these components (Henderson, Pine
& Fox, 2015). Sleep is another important component of Henderson theory which act as a
barrier to implement because the patient suffering from mental health do not understand
the actions need to be done (Thornicroft, et. al, 2016).
Utilizing this theory and working on it by taking actions is not easily adaptable in case of
acute mental health. It has many barriers to maintain person’s health and achieve a good

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independence level. Henderson’s philosophy of applying best practice methods involve
advanced practice to accomplish good care.
Enablers to implement this theoretical perspective within acute mental
health
This theory have various positive side as according to her she enabled the health of
patient requires proper assistance just to provide a peaceful mind-set so that they can achieve
good health by independent efforts. This theory was implemented by taking care of patient’s
ability to live a healthy life IN case of acute mental health, margin of mental vigour allows a
person to work effectively and reach to a satisfactory point in life (Townsend & Morgan,
2017). Caring for the patient suffering from acute mental health is examining the future will
provide further understanding regarding the challenges faced during caring of patients
suffering from acute mental illness. These help them to enable their knowledge regarding the
awareness and raising the potential to perform care practices and recommend plans to
mitigate from challenges (Lepper & Greene, 2015).
This theory is very helpful in enabling nurses a good practise as they approaches are much
generalised and can be adopted (Segal, Qualls & Smyer, 2018). This theory can easily be
implanted as it is applicable to the health of all individuals and also increase the knowledge
when dealing these patients of mental health.
My perceptions of nursing theoretical perspectives
According to me, this theory has enlightened me with the theoretical perceptive and
helped me to decide whether to undertake this illness into practise. Applying this therefore
mental illness is difficult in my opinion as to handle the patient suffering from this illness is
difficult. They often lose their temper and become aggressive which creates negative attitude
in undertaking this practise. My perception is not bad for treating mental illness as if theory
of Henderson is followed it will make the task easy. According to me making the patient
accomplish all the 14 components is a difficult as it is believed that a person with mental
illness is difficult to work with. In my belief I somewhere have hindrance to interact with the
person suffering from mental illness and take care of them in the clinical areas as it is not an
easy task due to their changing nature of becoming depressed or aggressive. Furthermore, the
negativity from other nurses treating the people of mental illness makes the chose difficult to
choose this unit into practise.

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Learning outcomes
Key points that helped me by understanding this theory and practise of mental illness
is working in partnership and respecting the shortcomings of patient by acknowledging their
problem and values and avoiding the inequalities. Practising a value based services helped in
in improving the knowledge as well as how to support patient suffering from mental illness
was a great experience. It helped me learn how to challenge inequality and identify needs and
strength of an individual and developing a framework by avoiding the chances of risks. I
improved my therapeutic relation and enhanced my career experience. As it was challenging
to treat the patient with mental disorder, while working with them will help me in my
profession career as it involves dealing with complexities and taking big responsibility to
make the patient independent.
The more I worked with the people suffering from mental illness the more I realized that I
knew so little about this profession and while actually working in this field helped me in
gaining experience and know how much more need to be learned about this profession
Dealing with patient who are in crisis of mental disorder is a great way to motivate the
pursuit of knowledge.
Ways in which Nursing theoretical perspectives inform my practice
Theoretical perspective helped me to enhance my practise as in improved my
behaviourism, cognitive and constructivism. These are dominant that help a nurse to improve
their learning and enhance their performance. Similarly these theoretical theories help me
learning about different circumstances and take instant responses. This theory helped me to
understand client situations and change my perspective regarding patient suffering from
mental illness. A theoretical perspective allowed me to plan the care in a proactive manner.
The critical component in choosing nursing theory for mental illness is to let the components
fit exactly in the situation. There were hindrances in this but that lead me to create innovative
ideas to apply my leadership, management and research qualities. According to me the
nursing theories are the base for practicing the theories and explaining how to deal with
different situations. These theories guided me overall to deal with the all level of
shortcoming.

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Conclusion
It can be concluded that research of this assignment proved to be very helpful as it
mainly focused on acute mental illness. It can be concluded that theory given by Virginia
Henderson was a key focuses as it helped to understand the barriers faced in implementing
the nursing practise. This report describes the benefits of using this nursing theory. This
report depicts the importance of using the theory and I have concluded my learning’s from
this theory. Henderson has provided the essence of defining the nursing practices and she
centrally focused on the practices and development needed to assist the patients and the main
motive of her was to work in a way that patient become independently and have the
capability to overcome from the illness.

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References
Bmc. (2016). The challenge of change in acute mental health services: measuring staff
perceptions of barriers to change and their relationship to job status and satisfaction
using a new measure.Retrieved from
https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-5908-9-2
Cheng, H. L., McDermott, R. C., & Lopez, F. G. (2015). Mental health, self-stigma, and
help-seeking intentions among emerging adults: An attachment perspective. The
Counseling Psychologist, 43(3), 463-487.
Coady, N., & Lehmann, P. (Eds.). (2016). Theoretical perspectives for direct social work
practice: A generalist-eclectic approach. Springer Publishing Company.
Current nursing. (2015). Virginia Henderson's Need Theory. Retrieved from
http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/henderson.html.
Edward. K. & Giandinoto. J. (2015). Challenges in acute care of people with co-morbid
mental illness. Retrieved from
http://www.marianjoylibrary.org/nursing/journalclub/documents/challenges.pdf.
George, L. K. (2018). What life-course perspectives offer the study of aging and health.
In Lives in Time and Place and Invitation to the Life Course (pp. 161-188).
Routledge.
Henderson, H. A., Pine, D. S., & Fox, N. A. (2015). Behavioral inhibition and developmental
risk: a dual-processing perspective. Neuropsychopharmacology, 40(1), 207.
Hyde. B. (2016). The!lived!experience!of!acute!mental!health!inpatient!care:!What’s!
recovery!got!to!do!with!it?. Retrieved from
https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/11444093.
Lepper, M. R., & Greene, D. (Eds.). (2015). The hidden costs of reward: New perspectives on
the psychology of human motivation. Psychology Press.
Ramírez, M. (2017). Psychology of the Americas: Mestizo perspectives on personality and
mental health (Vol. 126). Elsevier.

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Ravesteijn, B., Kippersluis, H. V., & Doorslaer, E. V. (2018). The wear and tear on health:
What is the role of occupation?. Health economics, 27(2), e69-e86.
Segal, D. L., Qualls, S. H., & Smyer, M. A. (2018). Aging and mental health. John Wiley &
Sons.
Thornicroft, G., Mehta, N., Clement, S., Evans-Lacko, S., Doherty, M., Rose, D., ... &
Henderson, C. (2016). Evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental-health-
related stigma and discrimination. The Lancet, 387(10023), 1123-1132.
Townsend, M. C., & Morgan, K. I. (2017). Psychiatric mental health nursing: Concepts of
care in evidence-based practice. FA Davis.
Ukessay. (2017). Virginia Henderson’s Need Based Theory and Implications. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/nursing/virginia-hendersons-based-theory-
2924.php
Yanos, P. T., Lucksted, A., Drapalski, A. L., Roe, D., & Lysaker, P. (2015). Interventions
targeting mental health self-stigma: A review and comparison. Psychiatric
rehabilitation journal, 38(2), 171.